Debauchery's mission is to make groovy death metal. Sadly they sound a lot like Six Feet Under. Or even later Obituary albums. This might be "the thing" for somebody, but not for me.

Where Debauchery trips is vocals. They are mostly very, very similar to Chris Barnes's style, i.e. making more or less brutal voices which at worst cases are annoying and comical. Different growls, grunts, screams might make vocalist's throat bleed, but it's just too funny at times. First five songs and some later ones could be from Six Feet Under's shoebox full of recorded riffs and outtakes. Simplistic, chunky heavy metal/hard rock riffing, beats that make head bang, if one understand's anything about rhythm and also simplistic compositions. Mostly this is mid-paced or slowish in tempo, which makes it very headbangable. 'I Will Rape and Murder' brings some blast beat in, and also more "evil" riffing. 'Wargrinder' is most straight rock song, but surprisingly, sounds the best one. How do you know Debauchery are a German band? Just listen to 'Take My Pain' and its goth synths! However, even this kind of thing sounds kind of cool among this too similar sounding material.

Sound is straight-in-your-face type stuff. And no complaints about it. Cover art by Kris Verwimp is usually something nice and this work is no exception. Lyrics? About war and gore and death I guess, since this is only promo version. There's some sound effects, like chainsaw and woman's huffing on, yep you guessed it, 'Chainsaw Masturbation'.

This is better than some Six Feet Under and Obituary releases, but not even close to first one's 'Haunted' (1995) or classic Obituary albums. Hopefully Debauchery try to search for some uniqueness next time around.

Rating: 4½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/01/2004 20:41